By William Mackay: In the latest news from Ring magazine, WBA lightweight champion Edwin Valero once again repeated his interest in getting big money fights against Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, despite the fact that Valero has yet to prove that he belongs in the same ring with either of them at this point.
Valero, 27, who sports a gaudy 25-0, with 25 knockout record, hasn’t fought anyone with a pulse as of yet, focusing mainly on the C and D class fighter to help pump up his impressive – or not so impressive once you look at the opposition that Valero has faced – unbeaten record.
Rather than build up his stature as a fighter by taking on a recent potential opponent in unbeaten Columbian Breidis Prescott and prove that he belongs as a champion, Valero instead said that he wasn’t interested in Prescott and only wanted to take on big named fighters for bigger money.
The fighters that Valero wants to fight, however, aren’t likely going to be facing him anytime soon, because Marquez and Pacquiao are going after much bigger game than a fight with an unproven Valero. This is why it looks as if Valero dodged Prescott, who is more than a handful for any fighter in the lightweight division due to Prescott’s huge power.
Before taking on Marquez and Pacquiao, Valero needs to prove himself against good lightweights like Juan Diaz, Nate Campbell, Ali Funeka, Joan Guzman or Michael Katsidis before looking for a big money fight with Pacquiao or Mayweather.
You got to crawl before you walk, and in Valero’s case, he’s done nothing to earn a shot at better fighters in boxing. With his pumped up record, Valero brings to mind fighters like Amir Khan and Sven Ottke with his perfect record against subpar opposition.
If Valero can get five or six good wins to go along with all the meaningless ones on his inflated record, then possibly I could see Marquez or Pacquiao giving him a fight. However, given that both Pacquiao and Marquez are pretty much at the end of their careers, I doubt that Valero will get a chance at fighting any of them before they retire from boxing.
Valero could have helped himself immensely if he hadn’t fought such dreadful opposition in his career, because at least he’d have a bigger name than he does now. This is why when it was important for Valero to fight a guy like Prescott when he was mentioned recently as an opponent for him.
Getting a win over a big puncher like Prescott would have made boxing fans wake up and see Valero as legitimate fighter rather than one with a built up record that came on the backs of largely mediocre opponents.
For Pacquiao to fight Valero, it would be a huge step down for Manny to take the fight, and one that would make much less money for Pacquiao than he could get elsewhere against more proven fighters like Mayweather, Shane Mosley or Miguel Cotto.
At this point in Valero’s career, he’s the equivalent of a John Duddy, a middleweight fighter that prior to his last fight against Billy Lyell, had a perfect record filled with mostly a bunch of nobodies.
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